Kukla's Korner Hockey

Investigators have laid criminal charges against a Western Hockey League player involved in a fatal crash west of Calgary.

The 17-year-old player, whose identity is protected by the Youth Criminal Justice Act, has been charged with impaired driving causing death, dangerous driving causing death and refusing to provide a breath sample. [...]

The Youth Criminal Justice Act also prevents publishing details of the team the accused played for, but he was widely expected to be selected in the early rounds of the NHL entry draft later this month.

Comments

Wow, they couldn’t name the player, but clearly gave enough info that it can be figured out anyways. There aren’t THAT many WHLers in the first couple rounds (projected), and the age (17) lets you narrow it even further.

I counted only three 17 year-old WHLers in the top 60 NA Skaters. No goalies matched the criteria. It’s going to come out anyways…

Terrible. Drive drunk, kill someone, and then refuse to cooperate even. If true I hope everyone passes on him in a few weeks.

It’s also proven (Steve Chiasson) that this sort of thing can end not only one’s lucrative NHL career, but one’s own life.

Indeed this is a very short list of 17-year old players who were in the WHL and and who were ranked in the top 60 in the final rankings. I’m putting two and two together, and if my math is right, this kid was projected by at least one writer to be picked by my Hurricanes in the first round. I don’t think they would have picked him anyway, but they sure won’t now.

A little more research and I’ve narrowed it down to one player. And it’s not the one I was thinking of. According to a different report in the Calgary Herald, the player was born in Calgary and played for a team other than the Hitmen. The gal who passed away was from Regina, and that was a key piece of information.

Amazing that they’ll say “we can’t legally tell you who it is”, but they’ll give you more than enough information to figure it out.